When Agnes Davis wanted to dive into entrepreneurship, she soon learned that the African-American community had a very specific and unmet need: there aren’t many Black-owned swimming companies to teach Black children.

“I was never taught to swim by someone who looked like me, aside from my mother and sister,” Davis explained in an interview with BlackDoctor.org. “So when I started to research our community and how we drown at an earlier age, I was surprised. I was so far removed because I knew how to swim, but when I started looking at the statistics, I was floored.”

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Her company, swim swim swim I SAY, was born in 2008. But in 2011, a call from a desperate mother led Davis to expand her Upper Manhattan-based company even farther. The mother wanted a program that could help her special needs son. The “Our Gifted Swimmers” program was born in which Davis works with children on the autism spectrum: building their confidence, pushing them to grow in a supportive atmosphere, and eliminating the stigma associated with the term “special needs.”

Years later, the gifted program’s first student has improved so much that he is now in a group class. With his initial apprehension and fear gone, he’s usually the first student in the water.

“I’ve worked with her son for four years, and he has developed tremendously,” Davis says. “He went from barely wanting to get into the pool to now, he can float on his back and use his arms and legs. [Him and his family] recently went on a vacation to the Dominican Republic and when he came back, his face was sunburned from swimming so much.”